Toucanix Official FAQ

FAQ

Why is it named Toucanix?

Short Answer: It’s a mix of toucan and Unix.

Long Answer: Toucanix began with a toucan mascot idea. “Toucan OS” felt too plain, so combining toucan with a Unix-like naming style produced a unique, memorable identity: Toucanix.

What language does Toucanix primarily use?

Short Answer: C++.

Long Answer: The Toucanix kernel is written in modern C++ for a balance of performance, flexibility, and developer experience.
The bootloader is written in C, as UEFI interfaces and specifications are traditionally C-based.

Why make an operating system in (insert current year)?

Short Answer: Because I can.

Long Answer: Toucanix is built to be fully understood and controlled from scratch.
Mainstream systems like Windows, Linux, and macOS come with legacy decisions and layers of complexity.
Toucanix is a fresh, clean-slate learning environment and long-term experimental platform.

Is Toucanix a Linux distribution?

Short Answer: No.

Long Answer: Toucanix is a completely independent operating system.
It is not based on Linux, BSD, or any other existing kernel.

What is the goal of Toucanix?

Short Answer: A clean, modern operating system.

Long Answer: The goal is a simple, understandable, and enjoyable OS for learning, experimentation, and long-term evolution.
It is not intended to replace mainstream operating systems.

Can Toucanix run existing applications?

Short Answer: Not yet.

Long Answer: Toucanix is not Unix-compatible at this stage, so it cannot run existing Windows or Linux applications.
Compatibility layers are a planned future feature.

What hardware does Toucanix support?

Short Answer: Modern x86_64 hardware (excluding GPUs for now).

Long Answer: Toucanix targets UEFI x86_64 hardware.
GPU drivers and additional architectures may be added later.

Is Toucanix open source?

Short Answer: Yes — the base system is open source.

Long Answer: The core Toucanix project is open source for learning, transparency, and community involvement.
A potential “Pro” edition with additional features is being considered, but nothing is finalized.

Whats the current state of the build system?

Short Answer: Great!

Long Answer: It consists of a few shell scripts and a makefile contorling them in the root directory and those shell scripts do a few simple things like platform independent building, cleaning, running, etc.

How does versioning work?

Short Answer: Current Year.Update.Micro Update

Long Answer: It starts as Current Year.0.0 and its in the format current year.update.micro update and starts on alpha then bata then release.